ORIGIN

1971 Hurst Jeepster

This 1971 Hurst Jeepster appears to be a clean example of a funky limited production model, with only 100 or so said to have been built. The seller explains that the truck spent most of its life in California and Arizona, and it retains all the Hurt items including the shifter, tach, and hood scoop. Find it here on eBay in Lyons, Colorado.

I own a rust free 1971 Hurst Jeep Jeepster Commando. I’m amazed how little is known about the vehicle. Some of the BS on the site is laughable to say the least. My Hurst was one of 100 built!! Only 55 five have been found so far. Mine has all the Hurst goodies PLUS it is a 3 speed FWD. Email me and I will forward websites and photos of my car.

It’s amazing to see the number of vehicles on this site that I have been personally acquainted with but are now amazing to people. Someone in my appartment complex owned one of these in my college years. He bought & restored snowmobiles as a part-time business. I remember it going around with a large trailer and 4 snowmobiles on it…

I’m genuinely surprised at the confusion here about what a his and hers shifter is, and about Hurst automatics in general. GTOs, H/O Olds… geez, this stuff was musclecar history! Before my time, for the most part, but still…

Why all the automatic hate? I used a his and hers on my ’67 GTO with a slightly modified motor (all Pontiac) and slightly modified tranny and could pull the front wheel on the strip. An auto almost always crushes a manual on the strip.

Linda Vaughn was/is “Miss Hurst Golden Shifter” and before that “Miss Firebird” for Pure Oil Co. She has made thousands of personal appearances at races & car shows since the 60’s, and still looks amazingly good. She is also one of the nicest people you will ever meet if you have the good fortune to do so.

I’m always amused when the Eagle is referred to as a “crossover.” It merely was an updated Hornet on an 4WD chassis. A Subaru Legacy wagon is not a crossover, so why should an Eagle be one? AMC folks are taking liberties with their history when there’s plenty of other, more accurate things to mine.

Anyway, surprised on the confusion on this one. It’s just a Jeepster with items from the Hurst catalog. GTOs came with that shifter from 1967-68, 442s from 1970-72. Hurst/Oldses, of course, from 1968-69/72 and beyond until the funky Lightning Rod shifters during the Reagan years.

I’m definitely the young’n on this site @ 34! Is this Linda Rhys Vaughn/Playboy Playmate or Linda Vaughn/Actress? I tried Wikipedia but no luck. Google images however, was quite ‘informative’. Until someone can clarify her age, based on current pictures she gets a GMILF… GrandMa I’d Love to F! Nice, clean Jeepster too!

@ optimader “Why ever did AMC turtle over??” It’s all about timing. Coming up with this 15-20 years before SUV’s became mainstream on the roads, and its even a truck-muscle car BEFORE the oil crisis. And don’t forget the crossover Eagle wich came 15-20 years before there was a market for it as well for the final blow.

Dudes – you don’t know about the Hurst Dual-Gate (His & Hers) shifter? It was used in Pontiac GTO and Olds 442s back in the day to control the TH400 auto tranny. I’ve got one in my ’64 LeMans with the drivetrain out of a ’67 GTO. Not as good as having a Muncie 4-Speed, but if you have an automatic tranny, it’s nice. You just flip the little lockout gate up, move the shifter over and down into the right side gate and you can run it up through the 3 speeds at will. It’s an early version of a Slapstick. You just jam it straight up to the detent and it automatically hits the next gear. Works great and looks cool as hell.

@DrRandy — I bet they all sold (maybe not immediately… ) But they played it safe and only built 100. Frankly, if one lived in a quaint coastal resort village (as I do for the moment), get the folding top and enjoy it as a summer grocery cart, beach servant. They’re actually pretty cool topless. Just avoid long drives.

A coupla’ stripes, a fiberglass hood scoop with a tach and a Hurst shifter, not much investment for all of the publicity it got! I have driven these. Take your dramamine. These Commandoes had a rocking motion that induced mal de moteur in a block or two. The back seat was a joke. It’s little wonder that these didn’t survive the arrival of the Cherokee in 1974. They looked special though.

@jboat49: terrible that I can remember all this, yet not recall what I had for lunch.

@steve in podunk: I believe the all-white mail jeep paint scheme came after the mid-seventies, when the USPS saw the success of the Hurst-Jeepster paint jobs, and used it for the US Bicentennial. Prior to that, they would have had blue bottoms, and white tops, looking like this:

As for the Jeepster, I’ve always been a fan of this model, but I never quite understood the allure of the Hurst package. In all fairness, it does fall in line with Jeep’s longstanding tradition of horrible cross-promotional badges like: The Levis Edition CJ (Ironically, they later renamed the CJ after another jean maker in the 80s) The “Maverick” edition of the Willys Wagon The “Call of Duty: Black Ops” Edition Wrangler The “Modern Family” Edition Jeep Compass — Okay, I made that one up.

Sadly, the Hurst edition Jeepster may be the most collectible of all these very “special” editions for the mere fact that it was actually tied to auto performance parts maker.

Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to get in my Nautica Edition Mercury Villager and drive off a cliff.

I like these jeepsters. Seems like they’d be a lot more livable than a cj; which is a miserable vehicle to use as transportation. The few times I’ve see Jeepsters for sale the prices also seemed far more reasonable. I think that AMC and the Hurst people didn’t think this paint scheme all the through because it is definitely reminiscent of a postal Jeep. Doh… still very cool.

Wonder how many Pontiacs and Jeeps blew up due to fogged windshields… I think — not sure — this was the only way to get a factory tach on that series of Jeep Commandos. No in-dash units. Linda Vaughn… yet another pleasant memory called up by this post. If she did drive it, all the more reason to own it.

Oops, I’m wrong on both counts… I was thinking of a funky two-door Cherokee I drove once that had similar colors. The hood-mounted tach is amazing. Elevates it from a tape-stripe job to a genuine performer!

Just think, Linda Vaughn could have been sitting in this very same Jeep!

Omigosh… I had forgotten all about these. The reborn Jeepsters were very cool (we could use a vehicle like this today — along with a good small pickup or two) and this was a neat factory package. Even if the hood-mounted tach idea, swiped from Pontiac, was overkill.

Yes, the Jeepster’s hardtop came off. Real awkward, but it did. I believe a factory folding cloth top was available, just as it was on the original 50s version. Doesn’t look like this has it, though. Seems solid, and to find one rust-free is pretty rare. Fun car.

The His/Her shifter (try to get away with that label today) was a Hurst original for automatics. An early attempt at the shiftable automatics offered today. It had two gates, one for the conventional PRNDL, another alongside it with the 1-2-3 positions instead of D so you could run it through the gears yourself. I think the shift-yourself side even had a keyed lockout. Presumably to keep those nasty, speed-crazed teens in the family under control.

It was sold aftermarket, like all of Hurst’s shifters, but I think it may have also been an OEM option on some GMs of the day. You could see it as fun, strange or visionary, depending on your cynicism level.

An early example of the ‘paper tiger’ package. So much for AMC’s ‘Rebel’ious nature. These were relatively light trucks, so the performance from the Dauntless should be decent. This the station wagon model so the top is fixed in place. The scoop is hood-mounted, not the tach. Originally, AMC was going to make them in both manual and automatic. I wonder if any 3-speed sticks are out there?

An automatic trans means it probably has a lower axle ratio; better for cruising the highways. This one looks like it’s barely left the garage, let alone the highway.

I had not heard of these. Does the hardtop remove? What is a “his/her shifter”? Why a hood scoop with a six cylinder? Why a Hurst shifter and tach with a four wheel drive automatic? Is the buck in the forth picture included? Nice rack.